In his post-Rio USA Swimming meet debut, U.S. Olympian Ryan Lochte swam to a gold medal and a Championship Record in the 200 IM at the 2017 U.S. Open. Lochte, who stated that he’s only been training 1-2 times per week in his post-race interview after yesterday’s 100 back, is the reigning World Record holder in the 200 IM. Tonight, he shaved over half a second off his prelims time (1:59.82) to take gold in 1:59.24. That cleared the former Championship Record of 1:59.26 set by the legendary Michael Phelps in 2006.
Splits Comparison: Ryan Lochte‘s 200 IM at 2017 U.S. Open
| Swimmer | 50 fly split | 50 back split | 50 breast split | 50 free split | Final Time |
| Ryan Lochte, 2017 U.S. Open Finals | 26.09 | 29.42 | 34.52 | 29.21 | 1:59.24 |
| Ryan Lochte, 2017 U.S. Open Prelims | 26.27 | 30.41 | 33.81 | 29.33 | 1:59.82 |
The big difference maker between Lochte’s 2 swims today came on the backstroke leg. He was nearly a full second faster on the backstroke split in finals (29.42) than he was in prelims (30.41). He was significantly slower on the breaststroke split in finals, however, adding 7 tenths on that leg at night. After finishing a distant 5th in the 100 back, Lochte said the 200 IM would be the real indicator of where he’s at and how much work he needs to do, so he’ll likely be working on his endurance from this point on to keep that breaststroke split a little bit quicker.
While he won tonight’s race by a large margin, Lochte still fell short of making the 2017-18 U.S. National Team Roster. With only the World University Games remaining as a qualifying meet, there won’t be any more opportunities for him to grab a spot this time around. As it stands, the 6th fastest 200 IMer in the National Team selection standings is Will Licon with his 1:58.54 from the 2017 U.S. Nationals.
I think he is following my patented “VIKING METHOD” which really only requires two 30-minute workouts per week. The rest is mental training.
Hats off to him. Not many people would have seen this coming. While the rest of the world was ridiculing him after the Rio debacle, he was busy putting in work in the pool day after day (just 2 days, then a week off). His grind stopped for nothing. Well deserved.
He said he hadn’t trained very much. What are you talking about?
He lied. Of course he has been training more than 2 times a week. Why does anyone swallow this, when we know that getting under two minutes takes a serious amount of conditioning, and we also know that Ryan has a problem with telling the truth.
I wouldn’t say he’s lying but just bending the truth a bit. By “2 times a week” he may just mean serious workouts that he sees as training. He may be doing light work in the pool or outside on other days and he doesn’t consider those as true workouts.
Regardless of what he means and if it really is “two days in the pool, five on the couch,” Lochte is still very impressive in the IM for his age and deserves true respect as a swimmer.
Fair enough….I’ll go with bending the truth. That’s what caused the Goober all of that trouble last year ?
Ryan talks as he wants to – he doesnt need to show any cards to anyone . Period
Ryan has a huge base to live off of. Phelps swam 1:53.3 in the 200 fly in 2011 only off his base.
Also Phelps went 1:54.16 in the 200 im. If he can do that then Ryan can do a 1:59